The meeting in Beijing shows that the Chinese regime is actively challenging U.S. policy in the Middle East, according to one analyst.
Senior diplomats of China, Iran, and Russia held a meeting on Iran’s nuclear development in Beijing on March 14, calling for the lifting of all sanctions by the west on Iran.
Analysts say that the talks in Beijing are the three countries’ strategic move to challenge and pressure the western democratic world led by the United States.
The meeting was hosted by the Chinese communist regime’s deputy foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu, joined by Russia’s deputy foreign minister Ryabkov Sergey Alexeevich, and Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi.
In a joint statement after the meeting, the three states called for the “terminating all unlawful unilateral sanctions” on Iran.
They also called for a restart to multinational talks on Iran’s nuclear issue. “The three countries reiterated that political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect remains the only viable and practical option in this regard,” the statement read.
Chinese regime’s foreign minister Wang Yi also attended the meeting. He urged “other parties involved,” without naming the United States, “to demonstrate political sincerity and return to talks at an early date.”
Iran’s rapid development of a nuclear program has drawn warnings from Israel and the United States, as it would intensify the conflict in the Middle East and pose a major threat to the peace in the region.
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign in February, “denying Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon, and countering Iran’s malign influence abroad.”
Meanwhile, Trump expressed that he still believes a new deal can be reached.
The joint statement with Russia and Iran shows that the Chinese regime “is no longer low-key, but is actively challenging U.S. influence in the Middle East and the global order,” Sun Kuo-hsiang, a professor of international affairs and business at Nanhua University in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times on March 15. The meeting in Beijing is a strategic means of public pressure on the United States, he said.
The significance of the three countries’ meeting in China is that they are jointly challenging the rules-based international order led by the United States, Sun said.
“China seeks dominance and discourse power in international issues. It highlights the formation of a multipolar international structure, and increases diplomatic and strategic pressure on the United States.”
Meanwhile, China is feeling the pressure from the trade war with the United States.
The key issue of the nuclear talks is whether Iran’s nuclear weapon development will continue, Shen Ming-shih, Director of the Division of National Security Research at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told The Epoch Times on March 15.
“Iran has already reached nearly 90 percent of its uranium enrichment, and it will be able to produce nuclear weapons very soon. This is unbearable for the United States or Israel,” Shen said.
The key is not whether the United States will join the multinational talks “but whether Iran can guarantee that it will not develop nuclear weapons, or open these nuclear facilities to the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency, or to the outside world for inspection or supervision to ensure safety,” he said.
The worst case scenario for the United States and Israel is that “Iran secretly develops nuclear weapons, and if it succeeds, it may have a great impact on the security of the entire Middle East. This is also the biggest variable to the security of the Middle East after the conflict between Israel and Hamas,” Shen said.
The probability of the United States lifting sanctions in the short term is “extremely low,” Sun said. “The United States believes that Iran has not shown enough sincerity to restart the nuclear agreement. Although nuclear negotiations may be restarted, the situation is complicated and not optimistic,” he said of the prospect.
Even if China is actively involved in the talks, since the United States is still the key executor of sanctions, negotiations without the participation of the United States will make it difficult to achieve real results, Sun said.When Beijing announced the trilateral talks on March 12, China, Iran, and Russia on the same day held joint naval exercises in the Middle East.
China continues to buy crude oil from Iran despite Western sanctions, while Russia relies on Iran to provide bomb-carrying drones and other weaponry in its war with Ukraine.
China, Russia, and Iran’s nuclear meeting in Beijing was a way for the three nations to put pressure on the United States, Shen said.
“The Chinese regime and Russia are very reluctant to face the United States alone. Now, regarding the problem [of Iran’s nuclear weapon development] that is troubling the United States, they take the same stance to put pressure on the United States,” Shen explained. “Because being anti-American or putting the United States in trouble is in the common interests of China and Russia, which is why the United States wants to divide China and Russia.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking to mend relations with Russia, in an effort to avoid pushing Russia and China closer together.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that the administration sees “incredible opportunities” in a geopolitical partnership with the Russians on issues of common interest “that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term.”
Luo Ya contributed to this report.